“You are sent here to learn to love and to receive love.”
John O’Donohue
The seasons have had a tremendous impact on my yoga practice.
While winter, for example, leads me to all protective and flexing poses, spring comes naturally with a feeling that things need to emerge. The beginning of this spring, particularly, has felt stuck or stagnant, with back-and-forth vibes, like a screaming need to break the sluggish vibes and the blockages of moving towards balance. The snow wants to melt, and the flowers are impatient for expression.
My yoga movements instinctually start searching for ways to open and blossom.
The adventure uses the chakra system as a support tool. I spontaneously connect with the heart center (Anahata Chakra).
I don’t find a better cycle in nature than spring to practice heart openers, which are poses that activate this chakra. They warm me. It comes with the desire to finally expand and open. It requires not only sweetness but courage to let our vulnerability be expressed. In this process, we discover that the heart chakra is the center of all the love nourishing us.
One of the different back-bending poses practiced in the last few days is Salabhasana or Locust Pose. (I write about some ideas and tips for cultivating sustainable backbends.)
Interestingly, there is a feeling of flying in Salabhasana-hence the chosen picture here! It may be due to the association of the heart chakra with the air element. And the air brings us back to nature and silence to keep the nourishing process.
Some of the preparations for this pose are breathing techniques, warming the spine gradually, and abdominal engagement like in chaturanga dandasana, which could be present in our vinyasa base.
It is also beneficial to embrace some of the associations of the heart chakra, as they enhance the activation: rose quartz, the color pink (the heart chakra corresponds to green and pink) for its soothing elements, and rose essential oil.
This is an old proverb: find people who warm you.
Involve poses and chakras that warm you when you need to. Happy Spring!
t. lopez
